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Fire Eric Wedge

In the spirit of debate and lack of anything else going on, Joshua and I will argue whether Eric Wedge (and his mustache) is to blame for this abysmal season. Like a lawyer, I don’t necessarily believe he needs to be fired but I wanted to build the case.

Eric Wedge deserves to be fired.

Wedge is your prototypical American League manager. Because we have the DH, you should be able to fill out your lineup card, waddle it out to the ump before the game, shake hands, and your job is essentially done from the offensive standpoint. Unfortunately our team cannot play the “get a guy on first and wait for the 2 run home run” approach.

(This was popular in the steroid era. Hargrove made a career off it in Cleveland. Point is, it still exists and it’s outdated)

Wak knew this wouldn’t work last year or the year before. He sacrifice bunted and attempted to steal his way to get some runs on the board more than any other manager. This is most likely why he advocated for Donkey in free agency. I don’t need to tell you Wak was the wrong man for the job. Point being his offensive plan was not that terrible.

This is a National League team. We are essentially playing a man down because we have no DH. Wedge ignores his bench, refuses to bunt and lets the players attempt to steal bases when they feel like it. I’m tired of waiting for the 3 run homerun that’s never going to come.

Further proof of his offensive plan: Pegero.

Wedge a quarter of the season trying to turn Pegero into the team’s power hitter. This way he could play his familiar type of baseball. Hence why he got so many at bats. This team is running on hopes and dreams of a power hitter we don’t have.

Wedge isn’t paying attention to the umpires either. Our fearless leader allowed two runners to get on base by drawing 3 ball walks in consecutive weeks. Read that last sentence again. We’re not talking about 100 year old Jack Mckean taking his afternoon nap here. The most baffling part is after the second time it happened. (Paraphrasing here) Wedge claimed he knew it occurred and he allowed it because it took the Angles out of a hit and run situation. This is the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard. If he wanted that guy on base so bad, he would have intentionally walked him. And the guy who he wanted to pitch around? The 4 year past his prime Bobby Abreau. Now, if Wedge said he can’t get ejected from any more games this year because it would make his wife upset, it would have made more sense than this rubbish.

Not only are we playing a man down with the DH… we have guys on the team who literally have no use. I blame Jack Z for signing Cust and Donkey, but I blame Wedge for not finding them something to do. Since they aren’t playing, can they hang out in the broadcaster’s booth? They’d be better than Dave Simms right?

When a team is losing, people tend to be a little critical of the manager’s post game comments. Because I’m lazy and pissed off, I’ll do the same. If I hear Wedge tell me guys need to be more aggressive at the plate I’ll throw my plasma TV into the street. Aggressiveness = hacking the f*** away at anything in the zone. Being selective at the plate, working counts and drawing walks will lead to better pitches, more guys on base and in theory, more runs. It will also help get the starting pitcher out of the game sooner. Yes, I understand that regardless of who’s pitching, this team is dicked.

Now for the pitching staff… They are awesome. So awesome, that we have one guy in the bullpen who doesn’t even pitch. Felix and Pineda are throwing so many innings and pitches, they are going to blow their arms out by late August when this team beyond out of contention. These guys need to get a quicker hook and let the younger bullpen arms come in when the game is out of reach.

(For this team “out of reach” is defined by a 2 run deficit regardless of inning)

The debate on how to handle pitchers careers is too complex to deal with here. I just see another wasted season where our only resource is being exhausted in a lost cause.

With this disgusting roster, Wedge is playing with the deck stacked against him. His stubbornness isn’t helping himself either.